Guv ad wars have Milwaukee flavor

The gubernatorial campaign ad wars increasingly are focusing on Milwaukee-area issues such as high-speed rail as Democrat Tom Barrett and GOP frontrunner Scott Walker get in general election mode.
Walker is running a new TV ad highlighting his opposition to the planned high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. The ad was released to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to Milwaukee on Monday.
In the ad, Walker rips Obama and Barrett for trying to spending $810 million on the project – money Walker would rather use to “fix Wisconsin’s crumbling roads and bridges.”
Following an image of Obama, Walker interrupts and then follows up with, “I’m Scott Walker, and if I’m elected your next governor, we’ll stop this train! Working together, we can help put the government back on the side of the people again."
See the latest spots in WisPolitics Ad Watch: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Content=24.
Later in the week, Walker accused Barrett of lying in a new TV ad and asked stations to take it down.
Barrett’s campaign dismissed the call.
The Barrett ad features a clip from a Republican Governors Association spot attacking the Milwaukee mayor. The narrator in the Barrett spot says, “Scott Walker’s blaming Tom Barrett for unemployment.” Walker’s attorney writes in a letter that the spot is defamatory because it refers to an ad from the RGA, not Walker.
“What we have is a willful and defamatory deceit by the Barrett campaign, to which your station should not be an accessory,” Glenn Willard wrote in the letter, which was sent to stations in Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Green Bay and Wausau.
However, Barrett spokesman Phil Walzak said there’s “no effective difference between Scott Walker and the Republican party organizations supporting him.” The ad overlaps Walker’s message, and the Walker campaign did not “repudiate or condemn the content of the ad, Walzak said.
“This ad is clearly an extension of the Walker campaign,” Walzak said.
See the Walker letter: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=207059.
– WisPolitics.com